I was noticing some weirdness, so I finally "upgraded" the RSS feeds of the DNA calendar and blog from RSS 0.92 to RSS 2.0. They validate, so let me know if you see any new weirdness.

I considered switching to Atom instead, but as far as I can tell, all of the purported advantages of Atom over RSS 2.0 are theoretical and pedantic, and don't make a difference in the real world (except that fewer things accept Atom than RSS 2.0). And providing both just seems a waste of time.

On Sunday we had twenty-seven bands play here, from noon until midnight. That's definitely a record. And, as it turns out, one of those bands -- the third one, Emilia's Rose -- is the 600th band to play at DNA Lounge since we re-opened in 2001! That's somewhat approximate, of course, since it's based on what's on our calendar, and there are sometimes last-minute lineup changes that I don't know about. And we quibble about the distinction between "band" and "dj". But hey, 600 bands, that's kind of a lot.

I didn't realize this before the show because I didn't actually get the lineup of the bands who would be playing until halfway through the event...

It was also our youngest event to date: something like 87% of the people who attended were under 21. (We track this by counting the wristbands we give to drinkers, so it is also somewhat approximate.)

The RealVideo version of the webcast has been down for a couple of days, because the folks who have been generously providing RealVideo hosting for us for free for all these years just upgraded their end to Helix 11.1, and apparently it doesn't like talking to RealProducer 8.5. I downloaded the Linux version of RealProducer Basic 11.1, but all the command-line arguments have changed, and so far I can't make it go.

Anyone know how to use this thing?

I wonder if anyone is actually watching the Real stream any more, now that there's a Flash version via Justin.tv. I think the Real version is better quality, but it's certainly less convenient. (I don't have access to any server logs that could answer this question for me.)

I think RealVideo is working again. That was harder than it should have been... Please let me know if you see it behaving weirdly in any ways it didn't behave weirdly before. I think it requires at least RealPlayer 10 now instead of RealPlayer 8, but I doubt anyone is still using v8.

And now some bad things. I haven't posted about most of these before, since I am surrounded by people who consider any exchange of information to be the giving of power to the enemy. So, the following is only ever so slightly redacted:

We hired a booker / talent buyer in order to get more live shows in here, and actually take advantage of our all ages license. The fellow we hired didn't work out, and that experiment cost a fortune. Now we're looking for a new person in order to try again. (We have some hopeful prospects, but we haven't hired anyone yet.)

Attendance is down around 30% this year. It's not just us; the whole industry is suffering. Blame the economy? Blame gas prices? Who knows. What I know is, it's hard to pay my staff.

A couple years ago, we used to do this party called ______. You may remember it as _________________. Well, one night, _________________. __________, __________, but that was the end of that party. I kicked those promoters out that night, and we haven't done an event with them since.

What does that 2006 incident have to do with 2008, you're wondering? Well, years later, ___________________ is suing us. We don't even know how much they're fishing for yet.

Last year, we let someone put on a rather repulsive event called _________________________. _________________, ________________, _____________________, ________________________________________. It was gross. Even grosser, though, is that _____________________________________________________... ____________________________________________________________, _____________________________.

What does that 2007 incident have do with 2008, you're wondering? I'll bet you can guess: she's suing us. Why isn't she suing ___________, ______ who actually caused _________? That's a very good question.

Earlier this year, someone said to me, "I just had to fill out a police report, because some guy lost his ear." I asked, "How does that even happen?" The answer: "He fell down. And tore his ear off. I saw his skull."

WTF, man.

Regarding both of the aforementioned suits, our insurance broker advised us that whatever we do, we shouldn't submit a claim to our insurance company, but instead should litigate on our own, because as soon as you submit a claim they raise your rates and then drop you at the end of the term. This obviously raises the question of what exactly we're paying them for. I think that what this really means is that our insurance broker is ______________, so we submitted the claims anyway. (Trying to find non-extortionate insurance for a nightclub? Not easy.)

________________________________________________________________________, ______________________________________________. But what we did get in late July was ______________________________________________________________________________________________________! _______, ______________________________________________________________________________________________, ____________________________________________ for months______________. ____, _____________. __________________________________, ______________________, _________________________________________________________________. ________________ ( __________________________, _________) ____________________________ and are shocked, shocked at __________________.

Every week, the meeting fills me with dread. My stomach is in knots before this meeting, in anticipation of all the unsatisfying answers I will get to my questions to the henchmen, and of all the bad news they will bring me. Sometimes these knots begin ten minutes after I wake up on Thursday. Sometimes they begin on Tuesday. After the meeting, I sit at home for hours vibrating, trying to distract myself from the absurdity I've just absorbed.